In Georgia, Ombudsman accuses MIA head of criminal acts

In Georgia, Ombudsman Sozar Subari, while speaking on December 30 at the extraordinary sitting of the parliament, made a statement that before the dispersal of the rally in November 2007 the heads of the power ministries of Georgia had a secret meeting in the study of Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Internal Affairs, where they had planned their actions on dispersal of the protesters.

In his report of 600 pages Mr Subari accused the authorities of blackmail, bribery, intimidation and physical violence of voters at presidential election on January 5 and parliamentary elections on May 21, 2008. According to the Ombudsman, he has "direct proofs against many bureaucrats."

Sozar Subari said that he possessed an audio record of the meeting available in the study of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia on November 4, 2007, where, as he said, "high political officials were planning criminal acts against their population."

"The MIA head ordered to beat demonstrators mainly in their kidneys and stomach, and as a last resort - in the face. The Minister said that none of the participants of the action should remain unbeaten, to have it a lesson for the future," said Mr Subari.

According to Mr Subari, it was recommended "to plant drugs or, if possible, firearms on many of the activists, and then arrest them."

In their turn, the MPs from the pro-presidential majority expressed doubts of reliability of the data presented by the Ombudsman and asked to disclose the source of the information. Representatives of the parliamentary majority declared that if Sozar Subari failed to name the source of information, they would assert that the information in question "was just invented by someone" and would address the Prosecutor's Office "to bring the Ombudsman to responsibility for dissemination of false information."